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Spellborn (spellborn.acclaim.com) - one of the few twitch-based fantasy MMOs on the market currently. It never saw much popularity, probably due to undermarketing, but I wouldn't take my word on it. It recently went free and is shifting to a cash shop model. I personally don't know much about the game and would appreciate someone else putting a description in. (Thanks Gabby!)

I played this game for 4+ months and throughly enjoyed the completely different game mechanics. Twitch-based within a FPS-style would be more accurate. The crafting/armor system is based on looking cool/unique more than actual stats but does allow for some basic augmentations through a rune-based system. Very detailed orientation when you first start playing to assist people not used to FPS/twitch-based gameplay. Graphics & gaming world are VERY solid. The main city is HUGE and epic. There are 2 playable races that couldn't look more different from each other. This game is definitely more skill based than gear based where players will rely on a rotating skill deck that they can stack with skills. I always compared the skill deck to playing a TCG where if you haven't stacked your deck right, you will be dead or SOL. The only other feature I found interesting and would like to see more games utilize is the House functionality. At a certain level you have the ability to choose an affiliation similar to different segments of society. I haven't gone back since right before it went to F2P, but if the cash store is implemented correctly it may just bring some new life into this great game.

On a side note, undermarketing wasn't the only reason for low popularity. There were numerous client/hardware issues that went unresolved, miscommunication/lack of communication from the development team, improper roll-out/website/forum issues and the biggest reason for its low popularity was, hold your breath, disgruntled player-base.

All that aside, I would still go back and play it again because that skill-deck building & tweaking was addictive to say the least.

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Thanks a lot for this great list :D

I just tried Haven and hearth, after walking around for god knows how long i finally came across 2 trees i could use to get branches from, and make some fires for Learning Points. I made a hearth fire there too incase the server would crash, cause the game is in alpha and a project of 2 students. Pretty impressive for alpha stage though.

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Are you looking for something that involves commitment and dedication?

Are you looking for something that doesn't always give the easy way out?

Are you willing to try something different?

Are you willing to try a game that's been obscured and has very few players just for the sake of playing something different?

If you answered yes to more than one, or all, of these questions, look no further, I have some suggestions that you might like.

Rise: The Vieneo Province(rise.unistellar.com) - a game that most would compare to EvE, but more sandbox-like and more complex. It's essentially a driving and flight sim, but at the same time a sandbox MMO. It's been dubbed an MMOSIM and has a 100,000,000 km world. You can stay to flying suborbital or leave the atmosphere and visit one of three space stations or even other planets if you so dare. You have the whole world at your disposal. You can buy land and create mines, farms or even develop urban regions. In each city, not only is there a player-run economy, but there are citizens whose happiness is affected by the economy.

I thought this one looked interesting.

Too bad it's broken and unplayable at least for me, it gives a DirectX error. This is in windows XP.

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Great list. I'm going to try to change your mind on Pirates of the Burning Sea, first by addressing your points about it:

1. imbalance between pirates and british - well, there are three nations (French, Spanish and British) and the Pirates. The Nations are best positioned to win each RvR cycle, while Pirates have some advantages for casual gameplay and they effectively act as a timer for the RvR cycle - if one nation can't win, eventually the Pirates will.

2. Underrated vs. bad design choices... tough one. What I like about this game is that the outcome of ship combat, whether solo or group, was based largely on personal skill and preparation. While on occasion there were some OP combinations of class and/or boat, most of the time it was theoretically possible to get very balanced fights with high degrees of variability, the ability to change strategies/tactics within a fight, and the ability to engage in extended group combat (a good 6v6 could take an hour or more to complete). Those are the strengths, and I don't think the gaming world knows about them, so in that sense it is under-rated. Bad design choices - yes, there are many, but when I played I was able to spend >70% of my time actively pursuing or engaged in the fun PvP combat I described above while participating in RvR as well. So I think problems like "no account/society/player warehouse" or "bad port-battle windows" or "horrible PvE" don't matter as much when you can spend most of your time doing something the game is very good at regardless. I would add that the company has made some steps forward over time as well - introducing buy orders, reducing RvR grind, introducing leaderboards.

Lastly, almost every problem in the game right now would be solved by more players who understand what they are getting into. The open market is dead, but that can be fixed by pop. "Good" RvR moves from server to server and faction to faction, but that can be fixed by pop. And there is still a ganking problem... which can be fixed by pop. The genre is weird - I would have never played this game if it wasn't for a friend's recommendation, but having played it, I do think it is overlooked and that a lot of people would enjoy it. Heck, I even know some people who enjoy the PvE, and the econ is pretty good if that's your thing. Anyway, that's my 18 cents, thanks for listening, hope you add PotBS to your list.

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Are you looking for something that involves commitment and dedication?

Are you looking for something that doesn't always give the easy way out?

Are you willing to try something different?

Are you willing to try a game that's been obscured and has very few players just for the sake of playing something different?

If you answered yes to more than one, or all, of these questions, look no further, I have some suggestions that you might like.

Rise: The Vieneo Province(rise.unistellar.com) - a game that most would compare to EvE, but more sandbox-like and more complex. It's essentially a driving and flight sim, but at the same time a sandbox MMO. It's been dubbed an MMOSIM and has a 100,000,000 km world. You can stay to flying suborbital or leave the atmosphere and visit one of three space stations or even other planets if you so dare. You have the whole world at your disposal. You can buy land and create mines, farms or even develop urban regions. In each city, not only is there a player-run economy, but there are citizens whose happiness is affected by the economy.

I thought this one looked interesting.

Too bad it's broken and unplayable at least for me, it gives a DirectX error. This is in windows XP.

I tried this game as well and it didn't run for more than a minute before I ran into game breaking issues.

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This is my bookmarked list. I have been anxiously looking at craft of gods and I am going to be trying out LOVE later today. I originally put try out LOVE tonight but I felt it sounded dirty hahaa

Lol, only when I'm on. I need to get around to adding PotBS to the list still. I finally did play it so I can vouch that it's actually pretty underrated and the balance is definitely there in some form or another.

Craft of Gods has hit a rut from what I see. They ended CB2 at the end of '09 and have yet to really release any useful information since. Let's hope they're on their final stretch to OB! =D

As far as LOVE goes, definitely try it out. It's a wonder how the one guy did so well. I can't really describe it any better than the summary, I feel. You have to play it to know what it's like and it's an experience to remember.

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Mount & Blade should be removed, it does not have sustainable MMO qualities, it is primarily a Singleplayer game and from what I've seen there really isn't any multiplayer support.

Until the Warband expansion hits that provides a reported 64 player deathmatch mode. I'm personally hoping there is a cooperative style campaign you can play online, not sure if that will be in or not.

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Mount & Blade should be removed, it does not have sustainable MMO qualities, it is primarily a Singleplayer game and from what I've seen there really isn't any multiplayer support.

Until the Warband expansion hits that provides a reported 64 player deathmatch mode. I'm personally hoping there is a cooperative style campaign you can play online, not sure if that will be in or not.

The list doesn't include games like Neverwinter, or Freespace Freelancer, which have much more solid MMO qualities so I didn't see why it would include M&B.

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The list doesn't include games like Neverwinter, or Freespace Freelancer, which have much more solid MMO qualities so I didn't see why it would include M&B.

Neither of those games are anywhere near underrated and aren't really considered "new" in my eyes either. The title says it all.

Also, once again, there are technically two lists. The MMOs and the other multiplayer games. =P

Ahh gotcha. I'm still thinking of underrated as games people don't necessarily think of that could be older. which Freelancer and NWN1/2 are both pretty small communities when it comes to the Online portions.